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As he prepares for his solemn coronation, Britain's new King will be telling himself to take particular care in how he handles the Imperial State Crown. That's because when he attended his mother Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953, disaster was narrowly averted.
Just four years old at the time, Charles was understandably fascinated with the monarch's new accessory. And according to courtier Lady Anne Glenconner, the little Prince made a cheeky attempt to get his hands on the beautiful headwear.
Lady Anne, who served as a maid of honour at the ceremony, was asked by jeweller Annoushka Ducas MBE on her podcast My Life in Seven Charms, whether she had ever tried the crown on.
"I wouldn't dare touch it. No, no, completely sacred," Lady Anne said. "Prince Charles got his paws on it, when we got back to Buckingham Palace.
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"Because the Queen took it off, put it on a table, and Prince Charles made a beeline for it. And we thought he was going to drop it. We thought, 'Oh my goodness, that would be a bad omen.' But luckily, I think my mother, as a lady-in-waiting, seized it from him and took it away."
The Imperial State Crown weighs more than 1kg and is adorned with 2,901 precious stones, including the vast Cullinan II diamond – making it very, very heavy.
Charles has recalled how in the run-up to the coronation his mother practised wearing the crown during his bathtime, in order to get used to it.
The monarch herself once commented on the crown's weight during a BBC documentary. She said: "You can't look down to read the speech, you have to take the speech up. Because if you did your neck would break, it would fall off." She added with typical understatement: "So there are some disadvantages to crowns, but otherwise they're quite important things."
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